Supercomputers are the strongest, fastest computers in the world today. These machines fill up entire rooms and process trillions of numbers each day. Their power is unmatched and new versions are released every year. The past accomplishments of the world’s strongest computers can only be matched by their future potential. These machines have the chance to revolutionize health care, agriculture, and even astronomy. While their basic structure may change, their capacity for innovation and insight will not.

Accomplishments of Supercomputers

Supercomputers have achieved a number of prominent accomplishments over the past sixty years. One of the most newsworthy yet trivial accomplishments was the defeat of Garry Kasparov in 1997 in the game of chess. Kasparov was the world’s greatest chess grandmaster at the time and his defeat made news headlines around the world. This accomplishment was dramatic and important for several different reasons.

First, it validated the practice of artificial intelligence and the strength of computers. It brought artificial intelligence out of the realm of science fiction and into reality. At the time, computers had excelled at basic operations like word processing and performing calculations for NASA. Most individuals believed that the future applications of computers were limited to processing inputs fed by an individual. Kasparov’s defeat changed that narrative. It also created one of the first well-known supercomputers in the form of IBM’s Deep Blue. This massively powerful computer helped generate interest that would later be captured by IBM’s later model Watson.

Supercomputer and Human Genome

The more consequential accomplishment was the decoding of the human genome. The human genome contains the building blocks of human beings and the roots of all of their aspects and deficiencies. This genome consisted of millions of different data points. In order to fully understand the genome, scientists would have to work thousands of hours with a computer sequencing and processing how genes and chromosomes fit together.

The task would have seemed impossible only a few years ago. However, the strongest computers are being consistently improved and perfected. They are able to benefit from the concept known as Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law postulates that computers continue to grow more powerful and less expensive every year that goes by. With the greater power partially provided by Moore’s Law, the strongest computers utilized by scientists from around the globe were able to finally finish the human genome in 2003.

Supercomputers and Machine Learning Algorithms

Supercomputers have completed a number of different accomplishments over the past few decades. These accomplishments have partially occurred in the field of algorithms and big data. Big data helps make algorithm processing much easier. They are at the vanguard of big data technology. In big data, algorithms thrive off of processing more and more information over time.

Supercomputers have been effective at helping craft algorithms in the first place. They are able to allow individuals to tweak their algorithms quickly before releasing them to the public. The strongest computers let individuals produce data for algorithms such as naive Bayes and Apriori thousands of times per second. Engineers can take the most basic example set possible and run that example set thousands of times in order to ensure that it does not have any unsuspected kinks or issues in it.

The Future for Supercomputers

Supercomputers have a considerable amount of potential. Perhaps the first frontier of the strongest computers is to expand to quantum computing. The chips that the strongest computers use are already produced on the scale of a few microns. They will continue to grow stronger and stronger until they are the size of molecules. Then, the computing field will have to move to the quantum realm. This approach to computing will once again jumpstart the development of the strongest computers and exponentially increase their strength.

As the strongest computers move towards this point, they will be able to reach more complex accomplishments outside of the realm of current computing. Supercomputers have already begun to decode the incredibly complex wheat genome. There is a possibility that the strongest computers will soon be able to process the genomes of all known species of plants, animals, and microscopic organisms. Supercomputers will be able to produce incredibly detailed maps of the universe. They will predict movement in the quantum sphere and be able to crack some of the more enigmatic aspects of quarks and gluons.

Supercomputers and NP Problems

Supercomputers will also be able to better understand and comprehend NP problems that often tax computers today. They will be able to better handle the processing and distribution of new, complex technologies such as blockchain. The blockchain is dependent on an understanding of how computers solve problems and break down complex calculations. Supercomputers will provide a basis for how fast computers will be able to add to and perhaps penetrate the blockchain. An analysis of computing power through the strongest computers will help ensure that companies know the capabilities and limits of their new security technology.

Algorithms and machine learning will change substantially. The most influential field for the strongest computers and artificial intelligence will be in the field of unsupervised learning. Supervised learning involves computers that attempt to reproduce pre-listed data sets. This approach depends on the specific parameters of the individual data set. Unsupervised learning, on the other hand, involves a basic set of guidelines and allows the artificial intelligence system to learn from there.

With an example set, the strongest computers would simply reach the example much faster than a regular computer. But with unsupervised learning, the strongest computer may produce a result far afield from anything that a normal computer could produce. The supercomputer may pursue a line of inquiry that was only possible due to its superior computing power. This insight will be critical in understanding and advancing the possible potential of machine learning.

Thoughts on Supercomputers

Supercomputers have achieved a considerable amount in a number of different fields. Those achievements extend to the field of big data and machine learning. As big data grows more important to the global economy, more money will go towards supercomputer research with machine learning and algorithms. More powerful algorithms will be developed and more relationships will be gleaned from their continuous work. This combination of algorithms and supercomputers will ensure that the big data field continues to develop and innovate for decades to come.